Henderson happier after big finish
Canadian gets back to ‘having fun’ and fires a sizzling five-under 67
Brooke Henderson said she finally got around to having a little fun on Sunday.
A final round 5-under-par 67 at the ANA Inspiration, the first major of the year, which vaulted the 18-year-old to her seventh top 10 finish in a row, will tend to do that.
Henderson had rounds of 73-6972-67 for a total of 7-under-par 281, tied for 10th place, five strokes behind winner Lydia Ko, who took the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond by the 18th green at Mission Hills to celebrate her second major win in a row.
“I had a lot of fun out there today, which was kind of the big difference over the last few days,” Henderson said. “I was having fun, but I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I normally do. Today I kind of got that back a little bit.”
A couple of wayward tee shots, which were gobbled up by some punishing rough, and some good putts that wouldn’t drop had left the seventh-ranked player in the world shaking her head a couple of times over the first three rounds.
This was the third Sunday in a row she’s broken 70 (she had a 67 at the JTBC Founders Cup two weeks ago and a 66 last week at the Kia Cup).
She dropped her stroke average on Sunday this season in LPGA events to 68.57.
After some fair to middling play over the first three days, Henderson’s game came to a boil after making the turn.
She roared home with a 4-underpar 32 on her final nine with birdies on the 11th, 12th, 14th and 18th holes. There was also a gritty 10-foot par putt on the tough par3 17th hole.
It still could have been a couple of shots better. She looked like she was bending to pick a five-foot birdie putt out of the hole on the 15th when it spun almost completely around the hole and got spit out.
She said she misread an 18-foot eagle putt on the par -5 18th hole — set up by a magnificent hybrid shot from 214 yards — and had to settle for birdie.
“It would have been nice to finish off with an eagle on the last hole. I misread that putt pretty badly, so I’m happy with the birdie,” she said.
“I had a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances and I was able to take advantage of most of them. The par putt on 17 was really key for me. I’m happy with 67 and hopefully it holds up,” she said, as the leaderboard across Poppie’s Pond on the 18th at Mission Hills showed her tied for fifth place at that point, with the leaders making the turn.
She knew she’d have to have the type of round she did to keep her hopes of the top-10 streak alive.
She’ll now take a week off here in the desert before the schedule resumes April 13-16 with the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii.
“It was a good week. I got back to more of myself today, just kind of staying patient through the week was really important,” she said.
“It wasn’t really the week that I was hoping for. I was hoping to make that leap (into Poppie’s Pond), but it just wasn’t the right timing, so hopefully it will be next year, or the year after. It was another chance to play this golf course and get used to it a little bit more.”